


The Cosmic One Liner

by BoredCollective



Series: The Dating Game [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 19:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15669906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoredCollective/pseuds/BoredCollective
Summary: Keith is driving home from a weekend away when he gets a flat tire. Thankfully a cute stranger pulls over to help him out.





	The Cosmic One Liner

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is my first fic and I really have no idea if it's going to have more chapters. Probably at least one more because it just feels like it needs a better ending than what I wrote.  
> This is actually based on something that happened to me, and the date that Lance talks about is an actual, real life date I lived through and when he says that wasn't the worst of it, he means it.  
> This entire fic is just me trying to exorcise some demons and if I put them on paper maybe they'll finally leave me alone. And klance owns my ass.  
> If you have any comments or edits or see any mistakes, hit me up.

I’m telling you Shiro, I’ve looked, and I can’t find this so called “key” you’re talking about. I guess the company who sold me the car decided it wasn’t really that necessary.”

Keith stared derisively down at the flat tire that used to be the front passenger wheel. Flat was being rather generous, considering that the entire thing had shredded to the rim. When Keith had first felt the tire blow half a mile back, he was stuck in the middle of construction and there was no way he was going to be able to pull over before the exit. He had reluctantly driven on the flat until he could get out of traffic, and honestly, he was really lucky the only damage was to the tire. He’d taken one look at it and wasn’t even surprised, he had just pulled out his spare from the back compartment and removed the jack. He’d carried the spare and the jack all the way to the front passenger side of his car and had managed to get the car jacked up properly. He then took the lug wrench out of the rear compartment and had attempted to remove the lug nuts. Fate must have laughed at him though, because the damn thing didn’t even fit over the lugs. Keith had muttered to himself and had tried all five of the lugs, just to be sure, and not a single one of them fit inside the wrench.  _What good was a lug wrench if it didn’t even do it’s one job?_

He had called Triple A, hoping that they would be able to help him; he really didn’t want to be hanging out on the side of a highway exit and he wasn’t anywhere near close enough to home to do anything useful. They had given him a four-hour window to wait around for a tow.  _Thank god I pay for this stupid membership,_ Keith thought maliciously.

After that aggravating phone call, he had dialed his brother because he had four hours to kill and nothing better to do. Shiro was the one who had mentioned that some cars had started using anti-theft covers over lug nuts now and that there was a special attachment that goes inside the lug wrench. Keith had never heard of this and had immediately searched every inch of his car. And after searching it thoroughly once, he searched it again. And again.

“Shiro, I don’t think looking through my glove compartment for a seventh time is going to make the piece magically appear. It’s just not in my car, which means that tomorrow morning I’m going to have to call the car dealership and complain about them neglecting to sell me a car with all the necessary tools needed to remove a tire.”

Keith had been driving home from visiting Shiro for the weekend. It had been a couple of months since they last saw each other thanks to the fact that Shiro lived in a completely different state for his new job, but Keith had been lucky and managed to get a three-day weekend off from work and had made the trip. It was an eight-hour drive one way, and Keith was literally forty-five minutes from his apartment. Keith sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He was grateful he could talk to his brother about this, but honestly, he just wanted to be home.

“You called Triple A, right?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah, and they said they’ll be here any time between eleven and three. Which is a really long time to be sitting on the side of the highway with just me and my broken-down car. I don’t know if I’m grateful that this is a busier part of town or if that makes it worse,” Keith grumbled. True he was in town now and wasn’t stranded in the middle of the desert, but that also meant a different kind of danger.

Shiro’s sigh was heavy and Keith could practically feel the worry, “Maybe you should call the police? They usually come help motorists by being around and using their lights to make your car more obvious, don’t they?”

Keith smirked, “You’re just worried someone’s going to try to kidnap me.”

“You’re 21 years old, I’m not worried about you being kidnapped. I’m more worried that some idiot is going to stop to help you and you’re going to stab them,” Shiro chuckled lightly. Keith laughed softly and leaned against his car. He definitely had a point there.

“Hey man, you can never be too careful. Always carry a knife, right? What’s the point on having it if you’re not going to actually use it?”

“Using it is not the issue. It’s the why and the when that’s usually the problem. How about you let them tell you why they stopped before you have to figure out where to hide a body?”

Keith snorted, “Like I have to figure that out. I’ve got the perfect spot already picked out.”

A pickup truck was exiting the highway and slowed down considerably when its lights landed on Keith’s car. Keith watched it as it slowly drove by, expecting it to be like the several other cars that had gone passed in the last 40 minutes and just keep going. Except it didn’t get more than two hundred feet passed the front of Keith’s car before it stopped and threw on its reverse lights.

“Hey Shiro, this pickup just stopped. I’m going to hang up and see what they want, but if you don’t hear from me within the next ten minutes call the cops.”

Keith rattled of the vehicle description and license plate number as the truck parked. Keith hung up the phone and quickly typed 911 into his keyboard but didn’t hit dial just yet. He also reached into his back pocket with his right hand and grabbed his knife. Better safe than sorry right?

A tall man stepped out of the vehicle, and the lights of Keith’s car showed tanned skin and brown hair. The guy turned towards Keith and approached slowly with a gentle smile.

“Problems with your car? I might be able to help if you’d like.”

The guy stepped fully into the beams from the headlights and Keith had to hold in his gasp. The guy was _gorgeous_. Still, gorgeous did not mean he wasn’t also dangerous. Keith kept a tight grip on the knife he held behind his back and his thumb hovered over the call button on his phone, but he smiled at the stranger kindly.

“Yeah, my car got a flat and my lug wrench doesn’t fit over the lug nuts.”

The stranger nodded, “Mind if I take a look?”

“Sure thing,” Keith motioned to the offending tire and took a step back. The guy didn’t send off any sort of danger vibe in Keith’s gut, which was highly unusual given the situation they were currently in. But he really did seem harmless and genuinely wanted to help, so Keith put the knife back into his pocket. It could be easily reached if he needed it later. As the guy knelt down to inspect the tire and the lug wrench, Keith grabbed the flashlight that was lying on the ground from when he had tried to change the tire early. He also used that time to check the stranger out a little bit more. The guy had on a button up shirt and it looked nice, as well as some nice jeans that really did wonders to his ass as he knelt down to look at the shredded disaster that was Keith’s tire. Keith may or may not have spent several seconds longer than strictly necessary checking it out. It was a nice ass.

The guy reached for the lug wrench and managed to do exactly the same thing that Keith had done; he tried it on every single one of the lug nuts and found that it didn’t fit. Keith would have been annoyed and rolled his eyes, except he was too busy checking the guy out to notice.

 _No ring, good sign,_ Keith thought as he pulled up his messages to text Shiro. It had been long enough that Shiro was going to start really worrying. He wrote a really fast message saying that everything seemed fine and the guy seemed genuine, but he would keep updating Shiro every 10-15 minutes. He also snapped a quick picture of the guy and sent that along too, commenting that he was rather cute, and he had a nice ass. Shiro was amused but only just.

“Well,” the guy sighed as he stood up, “this doesn’t work, as I’m sure you know. Let me see if any tools I have in the back of my truck will work.”

The guy walked off to his truck, Keith staring at that fine ass the whole way.  _Yeah, definitely good thing he doesn’t have a ring._

The stranger rummaged around the truck bed for several minutes before he turned around with a smile on his face and some tools in his hand. He sauntered back Keith’s way and stuck out his free hand, “I’m Lance by the way.”

Keith took his outstretched hand and gave him a small smirk, “Keith.”

“Nice to meet you Keith! Now let’s see if any of these will help get you back on the road.”

Lance squatted down at the tire again and Keith held the flashlight up to help Lance see what he was doing. Lance made idle chit chat as he worked, rambling on about how fickle cars could be, how unlucky Keith was to get a flat in the middle of construction, and how he was glad he had been on his way home at this time.

“You see,” he grunted as he tried to get his own lug wrench to catch traction on Keith’s car’s lug nuts, “I’m actually coming home from a really awful date, so it’s really unusual for me to be out at this time of night.”

“Oh?” Keith leaned back against the car again to get a better look at Lance’s face, “I’m sorry the date was awful. I’ve been on a few of those myself and they are not fun.”

Lance gave him an appreciative look before returning to his unsuccessful attempts to turn the lug nut, “Oh I know right? But sometimes you come back with these amazing stories. Like one time, and this is one hundred percent actual truth, I was on this date with this guy who was absolutely _weird_ , but I didn’t know it until we were on this date. Met him through a friend of a friend who barely knew him and was assured he was normal,” Lance grunted again when he tried to shove the lug nut into the lug wrench with more force, trying to get any traction he could, “Now, mid date this guy launches into a story about how his brother was in this terrible car accident a few years back and it was so bad that the kid got severe brain damage from it, and I’m thinking, _‘Holy shit, why are you even bringing this up?’_ But I do the polite thing and I say that’s awful I’m so sorry. And then the guy goes, “Oh and I was the driver.” And what are you supposed to say to that? Because let me tell you, I had no damn idea how to respond. I probably stared at him with my mouth hanging open like an idiot for thirty seconds,” Lance was chuckling quietly to himself at this point and Keith was following suit. Lance threw his lug wrench onto the ground and picked up a screw driver. Keith watched as he tried to wedge the screw driver between one of the lug nuts and the wheel rim, “Anyway, after that I sped that date up as fast as possible because I just couldn’t do it anymore. And as we’re leaving the restaurant, he reaches for a hug. Except instead of stepping close and being all normal about it, he stands almost 2 feet from me and wraps his arms around my shoulders,” Lance is having little success getting the screw driver between the nut and the rim, and he’s starting to pant just slightly from the physical effort, “So this weirdo is standing there leaning into me, arms wrapped around my shoulder, barely touching me, and his ass is sticking three feet out in the other direction!”

Keith stares at him in aghast horror, “NO!”

Lance nods solemnly, “Yep. All true, I’m telling you. This guy was just _bizarre_ , and sadly that’s not even the _worst_ of it.”

Keith loses it and hunches over from giggling uncontrollably as Lance stands. Keith has been on some bad dates, but he isn’t sure he can top that kind of story. Keith glances up to see Lance staring at his tools thoughtfully.

“What’s up?” Keith asks as he catches his breath and rights himself.

“Well, nothing I have is going to work on this, but I actually live right across that field, so I’m going to grab my tool box and some tools from my garage and I’ll be right back,” Lance looks at Keith with a wide smile and picks up his tools, walking back to his truck bed. Keith feels his hope die a little, but he’s still very grateful to Lance for stopping. Keith steps forward as Lance finishes putting everything away and smiles softly, “Thank you so much for stopping and trying to help. I really appreciate the effort and the company.”

Lance scratches the back of his neck and huffs a small laugh, “Yeah no problem. I didn’t really do anything except nothing at all. But no worries, I’ll be back, and I’ll have something that will help.”

Lance saunters into his truck and is off, and Keith watches him go with absolute certainty that he won’t see Lance again.  _Damn, I really should have asked for his number._

Ten minutes later, Keith is sitting in the passenger seat of his car and texting Allura and Shiro, just updating them about all the goings on and about the fact that he’s still alive. Honestly, he just wants Triple A to show up and get this tire off so the spare can go and he can go _home_. He is so tired and it felt like he has been awake for ten thousand years at this point. He’s writing a text to Allura, telling her about the nice stranger that stopped to help for a little bit when he hears rustling coming from just off the shoulder. He glances up, not exactly sure what he’s going to see when he spots a figure walking across the field that is next to the road. The figure is carrying a case, and as it gets closer Keith’s eyes widen in pure shock.

It’s Lance.

Keith is flabbergasted. He thought for sure he would never see Lance again. He really thought that Lance had used the “I live close I’ll be back,” excuse for a graceful exit and _ta-ta!_ as it were. If their positions had been reversed, Keith would have done just that. And could you blame him? Lance had already done more than anyone else had so far and he wasn’t even the first or last person to drive past Keith. Plus, Keith had mentioned to Lance that Triple A was on their way so it’s not like Lance was just leaving Keith in the wind. Keith was impressed, not only with Lance’s kindness for stopping in the first place, but with his persistence in trying to get the tire off and with his integrity in actually coming back.

As Lance entered the soft light of the highway lamps, his eyes connected with Keith’s and his smile was soft and sweet, waving as he walked up the incline towards the road. Keith blushed a little, thankful for the darkness that hid it from Lance. That man was _hot,_ and it wasn’t fair when he smiled like that. Seriously, who gave him permission to be that goddamn _attractive?_ Keith wasn’t sure he was going to survive this encounter, but he was absolutely positive about one thing: Lance was not leaving again without either Keith getting his number or Keith giving him his. Keith wanted a date from this man at the very least, and he was going to start putting on some more charm to make sure that Lance had no doubts about it.

Keith returned the smile after a moment of staring, and he was sure it was shy because this was slightly out of his normal comfort zone. Keith didn’t flirt with people; it was just too complicated and made him nervous. Keith had been on several dates and had even had a boyfriend once, but it was a pretty short relationship and all of those dates had been just awkward. Keith was so uncomfortable with general social interaction that he was pretty resigned to just never being around people. It was just so much easier, and there was no worry about other people’s feelings. Still, he could _do this_ and he was going to flirt if it was the last thing he did.

Lance finally made it up the small hill and his smile was bigger now, “Hey there! Got my tools,” he gently pat the side of his toolbox, “and I’m all ready to fix this tire so you can get on home.”

Keith grinned, “Thank you so much for coming back to help. You really didn’t have to do that, but I appreciate it a lot.”

“Oh absolutely!” Lance put his toolbox down next to the offending tire and knelt down to rummage through it, “My papa taught me that I needed to help people who were in need,” Lance glances up at Keith and there was an odd twinkle in his eyes, “Especially a _damsel_ in distress.”

Keith scoffed but chuckled in good humor, “Yeah, well I’m not exactly your average _damsel_ , now am I?”

Lance looked Keith up and down, and Keith saw that the twinkle was still in his eye but that it was more heated this time, “No, definitely not average,” he said quietly, almost so quiet that Keith would have missed it if he hadn’t been listening closely.

Keith blushed and rubbed at his nose to hide it.  _Definitely getting his number. And a date._

Lance spent the next half an hour working on getting all the lug nuts off. After he found out that all of his tools were absolutely worthless and didn’t actually fit around the nuts, he resorted to using brute force and ripping them off (but only after asking Keith if it was ok, to which Keith more than happily accepted). The whole time they kept up a steady stream of joking and idle chit chat, talking about their respective days and what sort of work they do.

“I’m a computer software engineer,” Lance said, “I work for a small business that makes all sorts of different programs and products for different careers. Honestly all I do is write code all day, but my team is currently working on a program that I think is awesome.”

“Oh? And what is that?” Keith asked. He didn’t know a whole lot about computers and even less about coding, but he had always found the whole process interesting; his brain just really couldn’t figure out how to code.

“So, the product is geared towards accountants and tax guys. They spend a ton of hours during tax season duplicating work that’s already done because the programs on their computers don’t talk to each other. Our product will solve most, if not all, of that and make it so that the end of the year hours are quite a bit less. Should also allow them to look at certain figures and numbers without having to jump between different programs and files just to find one part of the information.”

Keith nodded, impressed, “That sounds really cool and extremely helpful. I bet the accountants and tax people love it.”

Lance glanced at Keith between removing one lug nut (in pieces and cut in several places) and starting on the next one, a small smile on his face, “Yeah, they’re pretty excited to see the finished product. My team, Pidge and Hunk and I, barely started it a couple months ago so it’s still in the process of being built and everything but it’s coming along rather nicely. Thank god Pidge and Hunk are freakin’ geniuses with computers and programming. They make the whole thing a lot easier. This product would be so far behind if they weren’t.”

Keith smiled, “Just the three of you? Is that the typical size for a team?”

Lance grunted as he exerted effort on the stubborn nut, “Nah, but Pidge and Hunk do enough work for six people combined so our team is small. We like it that way; we’ve been working together since we were teenagers and if we try to add another programmer into the mix things get… weird.”

Keith nodded, “Yeah I can understand that. I work in a fire department, so we each have our respective teams and shifts we work with and we don’t always work well with new people.”

Lance stopped moving and slowly look up at Keith, eyes a little wide and a small flush along his cheeks, “You work in a fire department? You’re a fireman?”

Keith paused and raised his eyebrow in a silent question, “Yes?”

Lance stared at him for a few seconds before exhaling harshly and going back to stripping off the nut, mumbling something under his breath. Keith could have sworn he heard the word “uniform,” but he wasn’t sure. Lance gave the nut a few good hits with his screwdriver and hammer combo and broke through the cover. He dropped the hammer and screwdriver and picked up some pliers to start ripping the cover off the lug nut, “So how long have you worked in the fire department?”

“Oh about two years now? Maybe just a little bit more. It’s kind of a lucky thing to get into a fire job so young, but I applied at just the right time and ended up with a full-time position after I got my EMT,” Keith replied. He wasn’t exaggerating either; getting a fire job, with almost no experience and barely having gotten his EMT was a miracle and he would never downplay that. It’s hard to get into the fire business if you live in a large town or city; Keith had almost had to move to a small town along the state line to get a full-time fireman’s job.

Lance was down to one lug nut now, having successfully removed the cover from the other four nuts and getting the nuts off with the lug wrench (nice to see that the wrench actually worked on the lug nuts). He managed to crack the cover and ripped it off in almost no time, having enough experience to know the fastest way to do it now. He picked up the lug wrench with a triumphant grin in Keith’s direction and Keith returned it.

  
_Almost there,_ Keith thought, both elated and a little disappointed. He really wanted to get home, but he also didn’t want to stop talking to this gorgeous human. Lance shoved the lug wrench onto the nut and twisted it. The lug nut spun, having no traction at all.

The nut was completely stripped.

Lance and Keith stared in shock at the spinning lug wrench and then looked at each other. Keith started giggling, probably out of exhaustion and crashing hope; honestly, it was just so on par with how the rest of his night had been going, he wasn’t even shocked or mad. It was just hilarious at this point.

Lance stared at Keith for a heartbeat more before he started chuckling too and dropped the wrench. A sigh escaped his lips as he just looked at the wrench on the ground. Keith reached over and gently touched his shoulder with two fingers, “Look, it’s not a big deal and it’s really just to be expected. This is how my entire night has been going, I’m not even surprised. I’ll just wait for Triple A.”

Lance looked up into Keith’s face, a ponderous look in his eyes, “Well, I can still try a couple of things to give this nut some traction, but I’m running out of ideas fast.”

Keith smiled, “Really, you don’t have to do that. You’ve already done so much, we can just call it good. I’m completely fine with waiting for my tow.”

Lance was shaking his head, “Nope, gotta exhaust all options. I will get this fixed!”

Keith gave him an amused look, “Alright, do what you want. I’m not going to stop you.”

Lance tried several different things (one with a couple of rubber bands that failed so miserably that Keith burst into raucous laughter and Lance followed suit) but in the end, nothing worked. The stubborn nut was stuck and would have to be taken off by someone who had a few more powerful tools at their disposal. Keith leaned on the hood of his car as he watched Lance pack up his tools. “Lance, I wanted to thank you again. Not only did you stop to help a complete stranger, but you also kept going well beyond what anyone else would have done and I honestly can’t thank you enough.”

Lance looked up from where he was kneeling on the ground, still holding one of his tools as he paused to assess Keith, “Yeah, absolutely. In all seriousness I’m glad I stopped. It was a really crappy date, but this has made everything that happened tonight worth it. It’s been fun.”

Keith flushed and felt a stupid smile stretch across his face, “Yeah, I agree with that.”

Lance finished putting away his tools and came to lean against the hood of the car, next to Keith, “So, what do you do in your free time?”

They talked for another hour straight, and it was seamless. Keith isn’t talkative or very outgoing, so usually when he spoke to someone for more than a few minutes at a time there were pauses as he tried to think of things to say. But Lance could hold and guide a conversation so that there was never an awkward pause; Keith never felt like he was grasping for topics of conversation. It was fun, and they spent as much time laughing as they did talking. Keith was so happy that Lance appeared to not want this to end as much as he did.

The tow truck showed up at three thirty in the morning to find two men laughing and chatting, four lug nuts off of a shredded tire, a lug nut still on the rim, and a wrench and a spare tire waiting to do something other than sit on the ground. After the tow driver tried to get the las lug nut off (he was also unsuccessful) they loaded up the car and put it onto the truck. Looks like it was time for Keith to get his car somewhere out of the way and to get himself home. Lance was picking up his toolbox and Keith approached him slowly.

“So,” Lance nodded at the tow truck, “looks like you’re just about out of here. Happy to be going home finally?”

Keith smiled, “Yeah, I’m pretty exhausted so this will be nice.”

Lance nodded again, “Cool. So…” Lance reached up and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, “I would really like to get your number. And possibly talk you into a date with me. If that’s ok?”

Keith’s smile grew to a point where it almost hurt, “Well that’s good because I would really like to give you my number and I definitely want a date.”

Lance looked at him with an expression that Keith could only describe as joy, “Really? Heck yeah!” he threw his free hand into the air in excitement and Keith laughed.

 


End file.
